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The UC San Diego men's and women's swimming and diving teams will take on the Gauchos of UC Santa Barbara at UCSB's Campus Pool this Saturday, Nov. 9. The first of 14 swimming events is set to start at 12:30 p.m., after one-meter and three-meter springboard diving takes place beginning at approximately 10 a.m. Admission is free. Both the UCSD men and women are 1-0 in dual meets in the early season.

SCORINGIndividual events during Saturday's dual meet will be scored to five places (1st-9; 2nd-4; 3rd-3; 4th-2; 5th-1). Relays will be scored to three places (1st-11; 2nd-4; 3rd-2). No more than three individuals or two relay foursomes per team can accumulate points in a given event. Swimmers can not take part in more than four races total (maximum of three individual races) on the day.

RETURNING NATIONAL CHAMPIONS Seniors Nicholas Korth and Anji Shakya are the only two former national champions on the 2013-14 UCSD roster. Korth won the 200-yard breaststroke event as a freshman at the 2011 NCAA Division II Championships, while Shakya is the reigning champion in her specialty, the 200 freestyle. Both performances were in school-record times, with Korth having since lowered that standard in the 200 breast.

SENIOR LEADERSHIP Team captains for the 2013-14 season were voted on at the conclusion of the prior year, with the senior quartet of Korth, Merrill, Shakya and Lindsay Oosterhouse earning that distinction. Korth and Shakya are now two-time Triton captains. Korth is also the vice president of the Triton Athletes' Council (TAC) for this academic year as a two-time member of the TAC Executive Board.

STRONG STAFF ON THE POOL DECK The UCSD swimming and diving program will have great leadership with top competitive pedigree on the pool deck in 2013-14. Co-head coaches Corrie Falcon and Matt Macedo begin their third season in charge. Falcon was a two-year team captain and national runner-up at USC, while Macedo was a two-time national champion and 20-time All-American at California. Daniel Perdew, a five-time national champion as arguably the greatest sprinter in the history of the UCSD program, is in his third season on the staff at his alma mater and first as the top assistant. Diving coach Michelle Casillas was a multiple-time all-conference performer first at Nevada and then at Florida State. Finally, first-year assistants Emmett Walling and Jamie Saffer were top student-athletes at USC and Tennessee, respectively.

ABOUT THE GAUCHOSUC Santa Barbara, an NCAA Division I program, is in its fourth year of being an affiliate member of the Pacific-12 Conference in men's swimming and diving and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in women's. The Gauchos were previously part of the Big West Conference before it stopped sponsoring swimming and diving due to members like UC Davis and UC Irvine cutting swim programs. The UCSB women were fourth in the MPSF last year after back-to-back second-place finishes, while the men were seventh at the Pac-12 Championships a season ago. This year, the women are off to a 4-1 start in dual meets, with wins over Hawai'i, Cal Poly, Oregon State and Florida Gulf Coast, and a loss to UCLA. They are led by senior Andrea Ward. The men are 1-1, having beaten Cal Poly and lost to Hawai'i in San Luis Obispo. The longtime Gaucho head coach is Gregg Wilson.

SERIES HISTORYThese two programs have met in Santa Barbara for at least the past eight seasons in a row, with the host Gauchos winning both the men's and women's meets each time. The Tritons have generally and gradually closed the gap over the years. After the men's margin dropped in four successive years, all the way down to just 14 points in 2011, the final score a year ago was 170-228. The Gaucho women won their end of the meet, 178-122.

LAST TIME OUTThe Tritons opened their season for the sixth year in a row with duals against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at Canyonview Pool, with the men and women both coming up victorious. Shakya and Thomas each won three individual races, while senior Ahiram Rodriguez swept the men's butterfly races and sophomore Allyson Cohen swept the women's diving events. Calkins and Garet Webster became the first two Tritons to qualify for the 2014 NCAA Championships, winning the one-meter (311.92) and three-meter (314.70) events, respectively, on the men's side with qualifying scores.

GEAR HERE UCSD Athletics has partnered with Advanced-Online to provide a web-based, on-demand option for UCSD apparel and merchandise. Fans have access to over 600 products that can be processed and shipped within 24 hours. Visit the site at UCSDTritonsGear.com.

THE BIG PICTUREWe want to reward you for posting your creative photos. Tweet and Instagram your pics from any UCSD Athletics event and include our #TritonsRising hashtag. At the end of every month, we'll pick our favorite photos and dole out some swag to the winners!

UP NEXTAfter Saturday's activity, the UCSD diving squads will compete at the Bulldog Invitational in Redlands on Nov. 16, with the swimmers awaiting their main date for the fall portion of the schedule each year, the Arena Invitational. The Tritons will race at the meet's new location, East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park for the meet, Nov. 21-23.